ThirtyOne Nights of WatariTatsumi
by Rhea-samma
Summary: A place to collect all the fics written for the 31 Nights challenge. Rating may change, as needed.
1. Argument

So... through reading another fic, I found a challenge community (**31nights**) with challenges that actually stoke my creative juices. Therefore I'm sort of challenging myself and going through with it.  
_(1/31)_  
**Prompt:** 8. Tongue  
**Pairing:** Watari/Tatsumi  
**Rating:** PG-13 ish.  
**Warnings/Comments:** Very passive voice, slight lime, and possible spelling/grammatical errors.

Comments, corrections, and/or critiques loved! 3

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**An Argument**

_"The mouth is the source of all disasters."_

It was one of Tatsumi's favorite phrases. Mostly because it was true.

That was what had gotten him in trouble in the first place.

It had been a careless comment that had caused Watari to withdraw for the rest of the day to stew in that lab of his. It had been an unintentional slight on Tatsumi's part. The words had simply come out the wrong way, with the wrong tone, not the proper inflection. He realized his mistake half-way through saying it.

Graciously, he had allowed Watari his retreat, wishing that he knew some way to adequately make up for his mistake...

---

That evening--Tatsumi was working late again--Watari showed up at the secretary's office with a stack of paperwork.

He went so far as to_ explain_ what each form was about. Tatsumi tried, tactfully, to tell the blond _thank you_ but he _knew_ how each of those forms worked and what their content entailed.

Watari ignored him, and changed his tone.

Tatsumi's eyes narrowed, even though he knew it was punishment, revenge--retribution.

He **_despised_** being condescended to. He absolutely loathed it. And that's what Watari was doing to him now.

Tatsumi's lip curled and an uncharacteristically snide comment left him.

Watari appeared stunned, but only for a moment. His eyes had shrunk to narrow slits of gold, heated in anger. In his heart Tatsumi realized he never should have engaged in this battle with Watari. He was too skilled. His words, his sharp tongue...

The barbs the scientist left--sometimes unintentionally--had an unpleasant way of lingering in the mind. The words became something to fill spaces between thoughts on empty evenings when one was alone, or trying to fall asleep.

Tatsumi would not have been surprised if Watari's well-chosen words had left actual cuts. Yet even as they hurt--they incensed as well.

He was standing, voice raised, approaching the other with a predator's measured steps.

Watari--to his credit--did not back down or back away. His counterattack raised in pitch.

It was a very good thing that no one else was in their part of the building, to see them behave like this.

They were almost toe-to-toe, their argument had degenerated to the annoyances they found in each other.

For instance, how Tatsumi could not stand Watari's cavalier attitude towards using coworkers as labrats.

Watari couldn't stand Tatsumi's psychological dependence on money.

Tatsumi didn't like Watari sitting on his desk and giving him coffee.

Watari insinuated that Tatsumi's pointer spent a great deal of quality time up one of the shadow master's orifices.

Tatsumi countered that surely some of those chemicals had addled Watari's brains.

Watari informed the secretary--while they were on the subject--that he didn't like Tatsumi checking to see if he was okay after an explosion.

Tatsumi did no such thing, he was checking damages.

Watari resented his small allotment in the budget for damages.

Tatsumi still didn't like Watari sitting on his desk every morning.

Watari didn't like sitting on it either--and the coffee was just a courtesy to his superior.

Tatsumi hated the cheerful songs Watari would hum at those times. They stayed in his head the rest of the day.

Watari couldn't stand the way Tatsumi obsessively readjusted his glasses.

Tatsumi hated that graceful walk across the breakroom, and that billowing labcoat.

Watari had a strong dislike for the other's small smile that he tried to conceal, whenever it showed.

Tatsumi detested Watari's long, outrageous, flowing locks.

Watari told him that he didn't like Tatsumi's fingers touching his hair.

Tatsumi was affronted that such an accusation would be made. He'd never done any such thing!

Watari charitably pointed out that, at the moment, he was.

...Tatsumi admitted that he hated how it felt between his fingers.

...Well Watari didn't like how close Tatsumi was standing. (Which only caused the other to stand closer.)

Tatsumi hated Watari's mouth--his lips looked too soft when his tongue was so sharp.

Watari pointed out that Tatsumi's mouth was often too hard or firm and had no softness of any kind to offer.

...Somehow the anger had gone. It had all drained away, leaving a very different charge in the air.

They stared at each other for a few moments more--the clock on the wall seemed to have moved far ahead in time.

Pent up frustration and agitation burst forward and expressed itself in the most unlikely way possible--a kiss. A heated melding of mouths, hands desperately pawing, looking for the ideal hold. Their lips separated and came together again and again with the jolt and frequency of an intense thunderstorm.

Clothing was shed in a confused tangle--and Tatsumi was delighted to learn that the tongue that could wound, could also heal. It was as if Watari had gone back over and closed all the wounds he had ever opened.

And it felt incredible, lying on his office floor, with only Watari, his desk, and the night as their only witnesses. To completely surrender to Watari's ministrations...

At some point, Watari stopped what he was doing long enough to ask if their discussion would not be better continued elsewhere.

Tatsumi told him to shut up and put his tongue to better use.

**-FIN-**


	2. Fell Angel

_(2/31)_

**Prompt:** 75. "God knows I don't want to be an angel."--- 'Engel', Rammstein (English Translation)  
**Pairing:** Watari/Tatsumi

**Rating:** PG

**Warnings/Comments:** Poor Watari, I seem to have been giving him a lot of nightmares lately..

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**Fell Angel**

Watari had been falling asleep. All at once he was pulled from near unconciousness to harrowing panic as his body jolted accompanied with a falling sensation. Falling accompanied by brief flashes of images. Watari sat up and took in an unsteady breath.

_Not... real..._

Not his memories. They _weren't._ They couldn't be.

Next to him Tatsumi stirred into a sort-of wakefulness, sensing some sort of distress in the other. "Nhntari?" Watari turned and gave a shaky smile to his companion.

"I'm fine. I'm just fine..." Tatsumi seemed to awaken a few degrees further.

"No you aren't."

"I guess you're right. I lied," Watari said cheerfully. "But I will be."

Tatsumi was about to protest when Watari leaned down over him to steal a kiss and some comfort. It always helped those disturbing images go back where they belonged--nowhere.

Tatsumi knew what the kiss was for and he responded softly, but he also knew that it was a diversion tactic.

_Falling, falling--an uncontrollable descent measured not in meters but in time--light years._

Watari was half-laying on the other now, moonlit hair swooping down in an elegant curtain.

_Pain, loss, lonliness, despair, hurt, agony, confusion, falling, the feeling of being stripped..._

Large, gentle, soothing hands lay gently on his back, pulled him closer.

_Something...about...being banished...no..? Abandoned maybe?_

Watari was now astride his night-time companion. The images were fading, each one weaker and more indistinct than the last...

_Crimson staining pearly hands...the first stain...damaged purity... Falling...light fading... Glory and power too terrible to behold... Abstinence. Refusal to partake in life, love, anything that might mar or become sinful... Falling... A pillar... Falling... Crumbling... Destroyed... Reborn... Reborn again... Golden light..._

Another kiss and all Watari could register was Tatsumi, and he was sinking back into restfulness.

Eventually, the scientist closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When he dreamed of falling that night, Tatsumi was there to catch him so he did not wake.

**-FIN-**


	3. Semishigure

**Prompt:** 39. Crickets  
**Pairing:** Watari/Tatsumi  
**Rating:** PG  
**Warnings/Comments:** They have fireflies in Meifu, right? Suzumushi is a type of cricket in Japan, in English we would say "Bell Cricket." It does have a really pretty call actually... The title is a term meaning "an outburst of cricket chirping."

_(3/31)_

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**Semishigure**

Summer was the time of long days and lazy evenings. At least for most people. Seiichiro Tatsumi preferred to get as much work as posssible done with the extra hours of sunlight, which meant that it was customary for him to stay hours later than usual.

It was the close of yet another long evening and Tatsumi stood in the break room, admiring the orange glow of the sunset drenching the cherry trees. Slowly, small yellow lights started appearing, leaving a brief trail of light behind them. Fireflies.

Tatsumi had always admired them, even as a child. Perhaps it was an odd, instinctual facination for something that could manipulate light the way he could his shadows.

Tatsumi almost jumped--but only almost--when he heard a voice behind him, "Admiring the crickets?" The query confused Tatsumi and he turned a little to look at Watari.

"I beg your pardon?" Watari smiled and lazily crossed the room, standing a little bit apart from the other.

"I asked if you were admiring the crickets." Tatsumi looked out the window again,

"The only insects I can see out there are fireflies, Watari." The scientist 'tsked' him with a smile,

"Now, now, you don't have to see something to know that it's there. Listen." Tatsumi opened his lips to make an incredulous statement, but Watari simply held a finger to his lips, gesturing to the window with his eyes.

So Tatsumi listened.

And he heard.

Well, not so much 'heard' as 'became aware of.' The odd trills of the crickets filled the air, penetrating the windows even, creating a sort of symphony for the night.

When he turned, he noticed Watari was smiling softly as if to say 'you see?'

"... I still prefer fireflies, I think." Watari made a soft noise,

"Bah, them. They aren't nearly so practical as crickets I tell you." Tatsumi couldn't help raising an eyebrow,

"Oh?"

"Yes. You can figure out the ambiant temperature based on the number of cricket chirps per minute."

"I suppose," Tatsumi said dubiously, imagining one of the glossy black things.

"You don't find them handsome?" Watari asked with a grin, interpreting Tatsumi's expression correctly. The other shrugged,

"Not particularly." A pause. "You don't find the light that fireflies provide to be practical?"

To his surprise, Watari started chortling. "Tatsumi," he said around chuckles, "that bioluminescence is nothing more than an elaborate mating call." Watari's smile made him suddenly a little uncomfortable, so Tatsumi looked out the window again.

Watari was still smiling when the secretary dared glance back at him--Tatsumi could feel his shoulders tense.

The blond watched him for a bit longer, facial expression still clearly amused. Mercifully, Watari broke the tension and the silence in one fell swoop, "Well, I should be getting back to my lab." Watari sent him a wink, "I'll see you later my little _Suzumushi_." Tatsumi was too stunned to think of a proper protest to the sudden nickname, and all that came out were stuttered noises of protest.

Watari simply chuckled on his way out (with one last comment of 'it suits you') leaving Tatsumi alone and quite confused.

Had he picked up on some of Watari's thoughts, or the subtext of some of those looks, he wouldn't have been.

**-FIN-  
**


End file.
